Thud. The sound of the steel fork dropping was very faint.
Fu Chi tightly wrapped his arms around Ji Chen’s waist, imprisoning him on his lap with dark, unfathomable phoenix eyes.
“Has developing into this really been just my problem alone? It feels mutual. Are you a bit too overly concerned about me, thinking I will actually plunge right in?”
Ji Chen was so disgusted he could vomit. Damn it, he had fallen right into a trap before he even realized it.
Of course he cared about Fu Chi, but not in the way Fu Chi thought. How was he supposed to explain this?
Struggling and pushing him away, Ji Chen snapped, “Let go!”
Fu Chi gripped him so tightly that Ji Chen even felt a twinge of pain. Realizing that he would not get out of this without giving a straight answer, he put on a dark expression and said, “I do have… a bit of a reason, but it is not what you think. I cannot explain it.”
“Let me make it clear to you all at once: my orientation is normal, so you can forget about impossible things. Go fake a disability and stay in a hospital room; I will say when you are discharged, and not a moment before. Consider everything before this settled—let go.”
Fu Chi looked at Ji Chen for a moment, loosened his grip, and surprisingly did not press further.
In a pleasant mood, he said, “The little young master is magnanimous, and Fu Chi is endlessly grateful.”
Ji Chen got down from Fu Chi’s long legs, let out a disgusted cold snort, returned to his seat, and remained entirely silent.
After tossing and turning for nearly the entire night, combined with the lingering fatigue from soaking in the hot springs during the day, Ji Chen put on his sleep mask and quickly drifted off to dreamland.
Seeing that Ji Chen had fallen asleep, Cheng Cong finally muttered quietly, “There is definitely something going on here. You treat him like this, and yet he still lets you off the hook. Does not the Ji family’s little crown prince have way too good of a temper? If it were me, I would have the urge to beat you to death.”
Beishang chimed in, “It is obvious his temper is not good. Fu Xi went back with a broken arm, and on the plane, the two of them were still chatting and laughing.”
Cheng Cong was endlessly curious and baffled, asking, “What on earth is the reason for having such high tolerance toward Fu Chi? When he lunged forward just now, I could tell he was genuinely panicked.”
Fu Chi summarized with good cheer, “He likes me and is just too embarrassed to admit it.”
Cheng Cong and Beishang put on their sleep masks simultaneously, bringing this increasingly off-the-rails conversation to an end.
The group all fell asleep, leaving only Fu Chi staring fixedly at the silver-haired little young master, the ink-like darkness in his phoenix eyes growing deeper and deeper.
In truth, Ji Chen did not have a good temper. Earlier, he had wanted to make a move against Fu Chi’s mother, though he had not found the right opportunity yet. This trip to the Golden Horn turned out well, as she had jumped right in front of him first.
The very first thing he did upon returning to Beijing—even turning down his older sister’s invitation to dine together with Zhou Qing and Lin Yunzhou—was to issue a statement right away: whoever dared to cooperate with the Fu family would be making an enemy of him.
The Beijing business circle was shaken, and upon looking into the inner details, people discovered that the Fu family’s two young masters had accompanied the little crown prince on a trip to the Golden Horn, only for both of them to return disabled.
Fu Xi had lost the use of his arm, and Fu Chi was reportedly even worse off, unable to walk at all. Both had ended up hospitalized.
The specific reason remained unclear, but the little crown prince acted with thunderous speed. The jewelry brand under the QingSheng Group simultaneously squeezed the Fu family’s industries, causing the Fu family’s stock to plummet off a cliff in just a few short days.
Fu Cheng, the chairman of the Fu family, went to Liuguang multiple times only to be blocked at the door with no recourse. When he went to the QingSheng headquarters, he was not even at a high enough level to catch a glimpse of Ji Heng.
So infuriated that he stripped Fu Chi of his general manager position, he stepped up himself to appease everyone within the Fu family.
However, the Fu family was simply no match for the QingSheng Group, not to mention all the people currently kicking them while they were down. The crucial point was that they needed to figure out the root of the problem.
In just a few short days, Fu Cheng gained an extra layer of white hair and began cross-examining his own family members. Yet, gods knew what that mother-and-son pair said, because everything ended up pinned as Fu Chi’s fault.
Jingan Hospital.
Without offering a single word of concern to the son whose legs were cast in plaster on the hospital bed, Fu Cheng walked in wearing a suit with a slightly protruding beer belly and immediately started berating him.
“What on earth is going on? Who told you to offend that person from the Ji family, and what have you done?”
“I have known since you were a child that you harbor deep schemes. How can you be so utterly unpresentable? Did you try to frame your younger brother again and end up bungling it so badly that you displeased Young Master Ji? Was I born just to have a debt collector for a son?”
Fu Chi wore an expressionless face, “Think whatever you want.”
“You…” Fu Cheng instinctively raised his hand, wanting to slap him.
Beishang, wearing a white lab coat, stood at the doorway and said, “This is a hospital, a public space. If you have private matters to discuss, please wait until the patient is discharged. You are disturbing others.”
Fu Cheng did not even know that Beishang was Fu Chi’s good friend.
He merely dropped a warning, “Hurry up and figure out a way to apologize to Young Master Ji. Once your injuries are mostly healed, get out of the country immediately; our family cannot afford to support a grand Buddha like you.” With that, he hurriedly left.
Beishang walked in, sat down to the side, and offered no words of comfort, knowing that Fu Chi did not need any.
“What are you planning to do? If this continues, the Fu family’s foundation will be severely damaged, and the trusted subordinates you cultivated will all become useless pawns. Why do you not use this opportunity to take over the Fu family? As for Ji Chen… I do not think he is targeting you.”
A strange, unreadable expression spread across Fu Chi’s face, “You also feel he is not targeting me? Then who do you think he is targeting?”
Beishang pondered for a moment and said, “The Lin family in the Golden Horn was tipped off by your mother. If Ji Chen is holding a grudge over this, and breaking Fu Xi’s arm was not enough to vent his anger… could he be planning to target your mother?”
Fu Chi made no response. She was, after all, his biological mother; over the years, he had suppressed countless urges to act against her.
He was not stupid and had even suspected that he might be an illegitimate child, but unfortunately, it was precisely because of his existence that a mother of ordinary background had managed to marry into a wealthy family.
He could not understand where things had gone wrong to make her feel such intense disgust.
The affection built over all these years had long since worn away. He did not care what happened to her; if she was willing to pay the price for Fu Xi, no doubt she would gladly do so.
The hospital door opened, and Zhou Qing walked in carrying a food container. She was also wearing a white lab coat, though she was merely an intern.
Thanks to her connection with Beishang, she had entered Jingan Hospital ahead of schedule. With happy events greeting her, her spirits were high, and her whole demeanor was bubbly, clearly showing she was in a wonderful mood.
She skillfully arranged the meal in front of Fu Chi.
And chattered away, “I really do not know what is going on in your head. Such a grown man playing house in a hospital, and I am the one who has to take responsibility for delivering three meals a day to you. Tsk, rich people’s hobbies sure are special.”
At this, Zhou Qing muttered to herself, “Not all rich people are eccentric, though. Do you guys know Ji Chen’s older sister? She is exceptionally pretty, with a pair of phoenix eyes just as handsome as yours. My older brother really has great luck finding such a gorgeous and capable girlfriend.”
Fu Chi picked up his chopsticks and casually chimed in, “Did you see your older brother? Was he eating together with Ji Chen’s sister and brother?”
Zhou Qing shook her head, “Ji Chen did not go. Sister Fei said it was the first time she had ever seen her younger brother so angry, to the point that he is even contacting the Fu family’s shareholders.”
“What is even stranger is that Ji Chen has no intention of buying up shares to manipulate the Fu family, and Sister Fei cannot figure out what he is up to either, nor will she let anyone in the family ask about it.”
Fu Chi’s hand holding the chopsticks paused, “Ji Chen is contacting the Fu family’s shareholders?”
Zhou Qing let out an ah sound and covered her mouth, “Oh no, did I say something I shouldn’t have? You are a member of the Fu family too!”
“I no longer hold a position in the Fu family, and company matters have nothing to do with me. Tell me, what else did you overhear?”
Zhou Qing stamped her foot and bolted toward the door, “Do not try to trick words out of me. I am not saying anything else.”
Beishang frowned, “You’d better make your move sooner rather than later. Once he targets the shareholders, he is uprooting the Fu family’s foundation. Are you really planning to sit back and watch the mansion collapse?”
Fu Chi narrowed his eyes, “Let us wait a little longer.”
That wait did not take long. The very next day, Fu Chi’s hospital room received a steady stream of visitors—they were all large and small shareholders of the Fu family, every single one of them sharing the exact same objective of coming to sow discord.